


The Education of Danny Rand

by Yeomanrand



Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: But not day drunk, Friendship, Gen, Lightly comics influenced, No character bashing, POV Third Person, Politics, Theft as team-building, Traumatic Histories, Yuletide Treat, day-drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 20:13:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13107699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yeomanrand/pseuds/Yeomanrand
Summary: Murdock and Jessica steal things from each other. Danny gets a talking-to. Luke has a point.





	The Education of Danny Rand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DigitalMeowMix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DigitalMeowMix/gifts).



Jessica Jones, scarf wrapped around her neck despite the late-summer heat outside, stepped up to the bar.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey yourself," Luke Cage answered, setting down the glass he'd been polishing. "You're still cut off here," he reminded her, voice dry and wry.

She shrugged and pulled a small packet, wrapped in what might have been the leg from an old pair of jeans, out of her pocket. "Not here to drink. Or flirt. Need you to hang on to this for me."

Luke gave her a wary look, but held out his hand. She set the object — heavier than it looked — in his palm.

"Keep it safe for a couple of days," she said, turning to go.

"What is it?"

"Better you don't know," she said, the door swinging shut behind her.

Luke sighed and looked at it.

 _Murdock_ , he thought, and tucked whatever Jessica had taken from Murdock this time up under the bar next to his shotgun.

At least the last thing the Daredevil had liberated from her went to Danny for safekeeping.

——— 

"Sit."

Danny Rand walked cautiously into the empty apartment, Colleen Wing on alert behind him. 

"No," he said. Jessica and Luke and Claire Temple and Misty Knight all sighed. They looked like statues, he thought, with their arms folded and all of them wearing similar glares.

There was a folding chair in front of them.

Colleen poked his shoulder; reluctantly, he walked to the chair and sat down.

"Look—" he said, but Jessica cut him off.

"No, Danny. Sit there and shut up and listen. And I'm sorry if this reminds you of shit that went down in K'un-Lun, but we need to have this talk without any distractions."

"We appreciate what you're trying to do, man," Luke picked up. "But none of us need your charity."

Danny's cheeks reddened, but he kept his mouth shut.

"I've kind of guessed giving big expensive gifts is how you know to atone for stupid and dangerous stuff you've done," Claire said, giving him a not-quite smile. "And that maybe you don't know any other ways to reach out. But you can't just pay all our rents for a year, or replace Jessica's door every time it gets broken. We don't need you to take care of us like that."

"You want to do something good with all that money you don't want, give it to an _actual_ charity," Misty said. "Or plug it back in to R &D and set it up so people who need better prostheses don't have to go through StarkTech hoops."

"Fund a domestic violence shelter," Jessica said, drawing Danny’s attention. "Fund a hundred."

"Or better yet," Luke said, "throw yourself at these problems, as well as money. Next time I call everybody up for a march, see to it you make the time to help me keep some kid from getting a beat down when they only want to be treated right by their country."

Danny couldn’t guess if his face were bloodless or scarlet. But he wasn’t really being dressed down, he knew what that felt like. This was...something else. Less bad, less dangerous. More embarrassing.

"We really don't need you to save us," Misty said. "Sometimes, yeah. We'll need your help, or medical care we can't get elsewhere."

She gestured at her arm.

"Sometimes you'll need our help, too. Or medical care on the fly, which is Temple's division."

"Some of us are bitter as fuck and you represent exactly the kind of guy whose behavior we have reason to be bitter about," Jessica said. "We're not your employees, we're not girls — or boys — you're trying to impress. We are," she rolled her eyes, "your _friends_. Kind of. If you haven't figured it out with us having come back to save your skinny ass.

"But we need you to fight _with_ us, and let _us_ take the lead sometimes. I know you’ve been through some intense shit, and have pretty good reasons to think you gotta forge your own path — but things are changing. You gotta respect our damn freakish experiences just like you do your own. Got it?"

"Yeah, okay," he said, only a little sullen reluctance coloring his voice. "I get it."

Claire nodded, and added, "And if you really want to buy something, ask first or make it small but individual. Knit up a new scarf for Jones, maybe."

Jessica and Danny both snort-laughed, and everyone's body language relaxed a little.

"Good," Luke said, bringing a hand up to rub over the top of his bald head. "So we're headed to Claire's to watch _The Legend of Drunken Master_. Want to join us?"

"What?" Danny blinked. "Seriously. Seriously?"

The other five nodded.

Danny gave them a long look.

"This is just an excuse to get me drunk and hear me rant about how wrong the movie gets the martial arts."

Luke shrugged. 

"Maybe." He flashed a quick grin Danny's way. "You need a break from all that practice you do."

"Not _all_ of us can rely on unbreakable skin," he shot back. "I get to pick take-out. And the recliner."

"Deal."

———

"Here," Danny said, stepping aside from the door of Jessica’s building and awkwardly holding out a brown paper Starbucks bag out to Jessica. She looked at it suspiciously, making no move toward him.

"What is it?"

"Just...take it," he said, thrusting it toward her a little more forcefully. Something inside rattled.

She rolled her eyes and took it. "All right, all right."

She pulled the handles apart abruptly and looked inside. Studded leather greeted her, black and brown, and it took her a minute to place what she was looking at. Bracelets she hadn't worn in years.

" _Fucking_ Murdock," she said, closing the bag back up again.

"Yeah," Danny said, shoulders hunched up around his ears. "It was the last thing he asked me to hang on to. I kind of figured it was yours."

"It was," she said, fist closed tight around the top of the paper bag beneath the handles. She looked down and to the side, setting her teeth crosswise, then said, "Huh. I didn't think I'd kept these."

Abruptly, she thrust the whole bag inside her jacket pocket. 

"I need a drink," she said. "You wanna join me?"

"It's, like, nine-thirty in the morning."

"So?" She widened her eyes and shook her head just a little, as though the question were ridiculous.

Danny's eyebrows rose, but he straightened up, too.

"So, nothing. Sure, I guess, if you'll let me buy."

Jessica half-smiled.

"This time. Come on."

Danny settled into step with her, his own hands in his pockets against the New York chill.

"Tell me more about this K'un Lun place.”

**Author's Note:**

> So many many thanks to my beta reader [redacted] and also my beloved shinychimera for her help with the emotional beats.


End file.
